A Turtle's Halloween
by Dragonblooded
Summary: When April's Halloween is ruined by a friend's cold, Donnie will do anything to make her feel better. Even if it means hour long costume shopping trips, setting up a detailed Hallowen party, and being a turtle clothes hanger! A cute Apritello Halloween oneshot. Oneshots aren't my forte, so please don't flame me! Sorry to any who looked at this at first; I posted the wrong document!


**I know it's a tad late to write a Halloween fanfic, but I came up with this AFTER Halloween and I was NOT going to wait another year. So use the rest of that Halloween spirit for a sec. Make faces on your pumpkins and ghosts out of your gourds, cuz it's time for Halloween, turtle style. The story's in Donnie's POV, by the way. It happens somewhere in Season 1, after Metalhead's appearance but before the finale.**

I was in my lab, fixing Metalhead after I had to stab him, y'know, because he tried to kill me, when April came into the lair. She didn't yell, she didn't speak, she didn't even breathe, but I knew it was her. I had her footsteps memorized. I could tell if she was happy, sad, or scared just from the second her foot touched the ground. It's very stalkerish, but I can't help it. My brain automatically remembers anything about April. Is that love, or a creepy obsession?

I ran out of the lab, leaving Metalhead with a screwdriver still in his head. April was dressed all in orange and black, with a striped long-sleeve tee with a bat wearing a bow on the front and bright orange denim shorts over her classic leggings. Her earrings were little white ghosts and her T-phone had skeleton and vampire decals all over it. Orange is a good color on her. Black is a good color on her. Any color is a good color on her.

"Hey April." I said, "Why the outfit changes?"

"Well, I'm not going to wear red and green, am I?!" she exclaimed happily.

"I don't follow." I replied.

She looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Would you happen to be Mikey in a Donnie costume?" she asked.

I was just about to ask her where in New York you could find a Donnie costume when Mikey ran into the room, screaming. Hot on his tail was Raph, whose mask had somehow been dyed a vivid shade of pink.

"I will kill you for this!" Raph shouted.

"Well I guess you will, cuz I can't hit a GIRL!" Mikey yelled in reply, "Do you need me to tie that in a pretty little bow for you, Rafaela?!"

Raph growled and viciously tackled Mikey. "When I'm done with you, zombies will look at you and think 'How is that thing still alive?'!" Raph said, shouting over Mikey's terrified screams.

"Geez guys!" April exclaimed, "I know its Halloween-time, but I think that's going a bit too far!"

"Hallo-what?" Mikey asked, holding off Raph's beating fists momentarily.

"Wait a minute. You mean you have no clue what Halloween is?"

"Of course we know what Halloween is!" I answered, "Halloween, more properly known as All Hallows' Eve, is the initiation of the three day celebration Hallowmas, which is dedicated to remembering the dead, more specifically martyrs, saints, and all faithful departed."

"No, I mean real Halloween, not old person Halloween!" April said.

"Oh," I replied, "Then no."

April stared dumbfounded at me as she shrieked, "How do you not know what Halloween is?!"

"In Donnie's defense, he doesn't really leave the lab much." Mikey stated.

I glared at him. "Y'know, there's also the fact that we have spent the majority of the fifteen years of our life UNDERGROUND." I said.

"Well, there is that." April admitted, "I forgot you really do live in a cave….under a rock…..you get the picture."

"So April," Mikey said in a high voice that sounded like a psychiatrist imitation, "Please explain this so-called 'Halloween'. Like my Donnie impression? I've been working on it."

I blushed and smacked him over the head. What annoyed me the most was that April laughed. Is that all I am to her? A nerdy mutant who sounds like Dr. Phil? We all sat criss-cross in a little circle on the floor. Leo entered just before April began explaining.

"Halloween is a holiday on the last day of October, the 31st." she stated.

"That's tomorrow!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Technically, it is two days from now, considering it is around 11:30 P.M on the 29th." I corrected.

"Never mind." April said, "Anyway, on Halloween it's tradition to dress up as something scary, like a witch or a mummy or the Devil, and go around to different houses saying 'Trick or Treat!' And adults will fawn over your cutesy costumes and give you candy. Of course, more people dress up as fairies and princesses and angels then demons and zombies and vampires anymore. Some people come up with the cleverest costumes! Like this one kid in 5th grade went as a 'serial killer' and wore a hockey mask and stuck a toy knife in a box of Cheerios!"

Raph, Leo, and I laughed. Mikey just stared off for a little bit before shouting, "I GET IT! Serial! Cereal! That is so COOL!"

"Trick-or-treating's for little kids, though." April said, "I'm going to a party on Halloween. There's going to be candy eyeballs and gummy worm intestines and Jell-O brains! It's gonna be AWESOME. And I have the perfect costume!"

"Cool!" Mikey said, "Tell us what you're gonna be! PLEASE!"

April laughed. "I was getting to that." She said, "Okay, so I'm going with my friend Irma, and we're doing matching costumes. Guess what we're gonna be! Come on, guess!"

"Ooh! Ooh! Are you gonna be a unicorn?!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Um….no." April stated.

"Dang it!" he shouted, "I thought I had that."

"What do you think, Leo?" April asked.

"I don't know. Maybe the two witches from The Wizard of Oz?" he answered.

"No, though that's a good idea." She said, "Do you have any guesses, Raph?"

"Um….Batgirl and Cat Woman?" he said.

"Nope!" April exclaimed, turning her voice into a deep game show host's, "What about you, Donnie? For the final prize, here is your question. What is April O'Neil going as for Halloween?"

She stared at me expectantly, and I randomly started sweating. Is it because she expects me to get it right, she expects me to get it wrong, or the fact that she's actually looking at me? I got nervous and blurted "A bumblebee and a ladybug!"

April didn't seem to notice my odd outburst and declared, "Err! Wrong! The answer was….drum roll please." We all began smacking our hands on the floor beside us as she announced, "Summer and winter!"

"Huh?" Leo asked.

"Summer and winter….y'know, the two seasons!" she said, "Here, I'll show you a picture." She typed a few things into her T-phone and passed the phone to Leo, who looked at the screen for a little bit before passing it to me.

On the screen were two girls in frilly dresses. A brunette was wearing a headdress with little heathery yellow flowers. She had on a gold midriff top with orange lace that covered it and reached down to the waist of her skirt. The skirt had a reversal of colors and the lace only reached down one leg. Yellow and orange blossoms were intermingled with the orange ruffles. The girl wore thin yellow sandals. The other girl, a blonde, was wearing a similar dress in white and pale blue. Her little headdress had snowflakes stuck on it and a short, frilly sleeve was missing, replaced by a puffy white strap. Silver glitter and cotton swirls covered the skirt. Little silver sandals accompanied it. I was surprised that April was willing to wear something that showed so much skin.

"Irma really wanted to be this little 'summer nymph' thing, so she insisted I be the winter one." April said, "I don't think that girl would survive if she really DID live in winter."

"Hypothermia would get her." I stated, "Frostbite too."

April gave me an odd look, and just as I was about to start babbling aimlessly about the winter-based diseases that model would probably catch, the phone started vibrating and bouncing up and down in my lap. "Ooh, it must be Irma!" she exclaimed, "She said she was staying up to watch a Twilight marathon." April snatched the phone and pressed a button, holding it up to her ear. "Hi, Irma!" she said, "All set for tomorrow's party?!" A nasally-sounding voice could faintly be heard answering, followed by some coughing. "Oh, okay. I understand. It can't be helped, I guess." April answered, sounding suddenly depressed. The nasally voice spoke again, mumbling something about 'really sorry'. "That's alright, Irma." April said, "Hey, maybe you should go in a hospital gown, and I'll be a doctor!" There was laughing on both ends, seemingly forced on April's, followed by a bout of hacking on Irma's. "Or I could be a big medicine bottle!" April added.

The other voice answered, barely loud enough to hear, "You could go as a giant tissue! Though I might have to use your costume a few times!" April and Irma laughed some more, and Irma coughed some more. Irma said something about 'getting some rest'.

"Okay, bye." April said, hanging up. She put her phone in her pocket and looked at the ground for a while.

"Something wrong?" Mikey asked.

"Yeah, a little." April said sadly, "Irma's sick. She can't go to the party."

"Why can't you just go by yourself?" Raph asked.

"It was a two-part costume." April stated, "Without a spring and an autumn, we were already chancing looking silly, but without a summer, no one will know what I am. I'll look like some kind of frost fairy minus the wings and the wand, or a snowflake princess without a tiara or a ball gown."

"You could tell people you were winter." Leo suggested.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't be right." April said, "I'd feel stupid having to tell every single person what I was. Besides, the point was to have matching costumes and go with your friends. Everyone will be in couples costumes and group costumes. I could say I was Jack Frost, but then it'd just be me. I wouldn't have a Mother Nature to go with."

"If you want, you can just hang here with us for Halloween." Mikey said.

April smiled weakly and replied, "There's no fun in that. You're living Halloween costumes. I was really excited about that party. It'd be kind of nice to hang around humans for a while, y'know?"

We all looked at her, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. "Oh, so we're not good enough to compete with your human friends, is that it?" Raph said, voicing our thoughts in the worst way possible.

"No no no! You guys are great!" she defended, "It's just that….I need to….people should….Ugh!" She shouted in frustration and hurled one of her phone's decals she had been scrunching up in her fist into the sewer water. It unfolded as it hit the surface, showing a jack-o-lantern grinning at nothingness, with triangle eyes and one little tooth gap. I glanced away and receded into my thoughts.

I hid inside my mind for a while, thinking of everything I could do to make April feel better without making it totally obvious I was head over heels in love for her. Eventually I came out of my little trance. Everyone else had vanished, leaving me sitting alone, curled up in a little ball. April sat by the edge of the water, curled up the same way I was. She watched the little gap-toothed pumpkin sticker float downstream. I silently walked up behind her. The little pumpkin dropped off the edge of the pool and into the sewer. April sighed. I stepped close enough so that my reflection was standing over hers. I took a deep breath and focused on not sounding like an idiot.

"Y'know, just because Irma's Halloween is ruined doesn't mean yours has to be." I said. Well, I probably could've worded that a bit better.

April looked up at me. "I really wanted to go to that party. I'll look stupid if I go alone." She said, swirling her finger in the water, "It would've been really the first time I had fun with people. Not to say you guys aren't fun! It's just that…."

"It's okay. I understand. Raph can be a little insensitive." I interrupted, sitting down next to her.

"A little?" April asked.

"Hey, he IS my brother." I answered.

"Yeah…." She said, "That must be hard on you."

"Tell me about it." I said, "We could throw a Halloween party in the lair. It'd be fun."

April gave me a doubtful look. "You just learned about Halloween today." She pointed out.

"We have a day to figure it out. I think we've already got some of the décor covered. We have enough cobwebs to cover Times Square!" I declared. April laughed, and I started blushing again. "Look, we'll go with you and find a nice costume. Then you can go back to your place for a little bit and we'll get this place all spookified for you. It'll be great." I suggested.

"Did you just use a nonexistent word?" April asked. My face turned beet red and I stared at my feet. She laughed and said, "Okay. Meet me at the costume shop two blocks down at noon."

"Should we get fedoras and trench coats?" I asked.

April giggled and decreed, "What are you talking about?! You live in costume!"

We arrived in the Halloween store April recommended, 'Blood, Bones, and Beyond', at 11:45 A.M. I refused to chance being late.

"Welcome to Blood, Bones, and Beyond, where our prices are scary good." The cashier stated emotionlessly. We didn't answer. "So, what are you guys supposed to be?" the clerk asked, "Some kind of Martian?"

"We're turtles." Leo stated.

"O….kay….then." the man said, "Whatever floats your boat."

"What are you? An evil hockey player or something?" Raph asked.

The guy was wearing a hockey mask and holding a machete. He had on a dark, tattered jacket. "I'm Jason! From Friday the Thirteenth!" he shouted, waving his weapon. When we stared at him blankly, he exclaimed, "Where do you people live?! In a cave?!"

"Actually, we live in the sewers." Mikey said with all seriousness.

The dude's eyes widened slightly. "Ha. Ha. Good one, Mikey!" I said, elbowing him to make him laugh, "Of course we know who Jordan is!"

"Jason." The guy stated.

"Jason." I corrected, getting a bit worried, "Hey, shouldn't April be here by now?"

"It's noon." Leo decreed, checking his T-phone, "She'll be here any minute, Donnie."

"You really went all out, didn't you?" the clerk asked, "With the turtle phones."

"You like our T-phones?" Mikey said, "Donnie built them."

"Shut up!" I hissed under my breath.

"Oh really?" the guy said, looking at me, "I would love to hear more about that."

"Here, why don't you just look at mine?" Mikey answered, tossing the clerk the phone. He caught it and looked it over.

I coughed loudly and muttered, "T-phone self-destruct." Mikey's phone fizzed and started smoking.

"What the…." The guy mumbled, "Well then….here's your phone back, man." He tossed Mikey the smoking T-phone, who caught it and stared at it in shock.

"Don't worry." I whispered, "I'll make you another one."

Just then, April walked into the costume shop, happy as could be. "Who's ready to get their Halloween on?!" she exclaimed.

"So April," Leo asked, "What do you think you will dress up as?"

"I don't know; that's why I'm looking." April replied, scanning through a rack of girl's costumes, "Since Halloween is today, that means I'll have to pick from whatever's left over. It also means that all the costumes are dirt cheap." She occasionally picked a hanger off the rack and hooked it over her arm.

"Do you want me to carry those for you?" I offered.

"Sure!" April answered, handing me her stack of disguises, "Thanks, Donnie!"

"Don't mention it! It's nothing!" I said a little too enthusiastically. For the next half-hour or so April walked around the store handing me outfits, hats, shoes, and other random things like butterfly wings. Once she was done I could barely feel my arms. She excitedly led us to the back of the store, where all the changing rooms were, and retrieved her humongous pile. She held that one-handedly and strode into a changing room.

"How can you hold those without your arms falling off?!" I asked, "I'm surprised mine didn't."

April laughed and declared, "Shopping is a good training exercise!"

In a few seconds she came out dressed as a pink leopard print cat. "So, what do you think?" she asked, "Too much pink?"

"No." I said.

"Yes." Mikey, Leo, and Raph said.

"Yeah, I thought so too." April answered, vanishing into the dressing room. Her next outfit was a pioneer girl bonnet and old-fashioned dress. "What about this one?" she asked, "Thumbs up or thumbs down?"

I gave it a thumbs up. Everyone else gave it thumbs down.

April continued showing off various costumes. She went through a baseball player, a football player, a referee, a butterfly, a cave girl, and plenty more. Mikey gave a thumbs up to the pizza costume. Leo gave a thumbs up to the space cadet costume. Raph gave a thumbs up to the samurai costume. I gave a thumbs up to them all. But the vote always seemed to be half and half, or everyone against me. Eventually, April ran out of costumes.

"Well, that's that." She stated, "All out."

"Y'know, that samurai one wasn't half bad." Leo declared, "I just liked that other one better."

"It wasn't you guys. I didn't like any of them either." April replied.

"Well, sorry missy." The clerk declared as he cleaned the counter, "That's what you get for trying to get a costume last minute like that. Halloween costumes don't grow on trees, y'know." Softly, he added, "Then they'd all be green."

April's face lit up. "That's it!" she exclaimed. She raced around the store and snagged a random collection of items. I noticed a lot of green, but for the most part she kept them hidden. She disappeared into the changing room.

"What's it?!" I asked, "Did you get an idea?!"

"The best one ever!" April answered from the changing room, "I can't believe I didn't think of this before! It's brilliant! Hey, can one of you grab me a shopping bag?"

"A shopping bag?" Raph asked, "Why do need a…."

"Here you are!" I exclaimed, handing her the bag over the top of the changing room door.

"You're the best, Donnie." She replied. I blushed deeply and giggled like a little girl. I walked back into the actual store.

Raph patted me on the shell and said, "Don't worry, Donnie. I'll bet you one day you'll be able to talk to April and not sound like an idiot….Nah, probably not."

Just then April burst out of the dressing room, still in the orange and black outfit she had been wearing. "Where's your costume?" Leo asked.

"In the bag." April stated, tapping the plastic bag I had given her. She had strategically wrapped her costume in the bag so that all you could see was a single shade of green.

"What is it?" Leo asked.

"It's a secret." April replied, placing the bag on the counter.

"Wait a minute. We went through all that and you're not even gonna tell us what it is?!" Raph exclaimed.

"Let's just say I wanted to wear a group costume, and I'm going to." She declared, "Besides, that wasn't SO bad."

"That's a matter of opinion." Raph grumbled.

April went home with the promise to come to the lair at ten in costume. After she left the store we got some Halloween decorations, props, and things like candy eyeballs that April mentioned. Then we spent the majority of the next ten hours planning and decorating the lair. Leo hung orange and black banners, bats on strings, and dangling skeletons from the pipes of the ceiling (We wouldn't trust Mikey with a ladder.) Raph set up tables of Halloween themed treats (or should I say trick-or-treats? Hehe.) and filled a bowl with punch (We wouldn't trust Mikey with food.) Mikey got the job of convincing Master Splinter to let us decorate the dojo, and somehow succeeded. I rigged the lair with dry ice machines, 80's black light, and creepy sound effects. I even set it up so that an animatronics Frankenstein lurched around a bit. We sent Mikey to look out for April (he wouldn't stop bugging us), and at ten o'clock P.M exact he ran into the lair shouting "April's here! April's here! April's here!"

"Did you see what she's dressed as?" Raph asked.

"No." Mikey answered, "Was I supposed to?"

Raph facepalmed and sighed. "What do I do now?" Mikey asked.

"There's a unicorn in Splinter's room." Raph stated instantly.

"Ooh, a unicorn!" Mikey exclaimed, running off to be disappointed.

"Hello?" April's voice asked, "Anyone home?"

I pressed a button on my T-phone. A Dracula voice said ominously, "Come in….If you dare."

"Nice." April declared. I heard her happily walk into the lair, but a cloud of dry ice obscured her from view. "You guys really outdid yourselves."

"Yeah, but all the cool stuff was Donnie." Raph said, "The lights, the ice, the vampire."

"Great job, Donnie." April decreed, "Y'know, for someone who just learned about Halloween today, you throw an awesome Halloween party."

I blushed and giggled again. Leo pushed me aside and said, "Enough about the party. Show us this brilliant costume of yours,"

"Okay, here goes." April stated, stepping out of the dry ice cloud. She spun around, showing off the dress she was wearing. She had on a long sleeve turtle shell pattern dress, with olive leggings. She wore turtle shell patterned ballet flats with green bows. Her face was painted green, and she wore a mask in our fashion, but yellow. Over her dress was a thick brown belt, just like mine, with a holster that fit her tessen perfectly. She even had on small brown kneepads and elbow pads. She had painted her hands green and taped her fingers together with white wraps to make five into three.

"So," she said, "What do you think?"

**Here are links to the summer nymph and winter nymph costumes she mentioned.**

**Summer nymph: p/19199/summer-nymph-adult-costume**

**Winter nymph: . **

**The turtle costume is NOT based off the female TMNT costumes.**


End file.
